The meaning of Christmas In the spirit of the Christmas holiday, my little sister, Whitney, revealed to me today the true meaning of Christmas: "Santa died so that we could get free gifts every year." :)
Man it's cold! I realize I've commented on the temperature difference before, but it means so much more when you're on the other side. I went outside today and noticed it was really cold. I mean, it's normally cold here in Michigan, but today felt a bit extreme. The weather channel verified my feeling, and let me know what I was missing out on. The sad part is how the sun was out when that Michigan measurement was taken.
Homeward bound I'm headed home to Lansing tomorrow; the good 'ole 517 :) Going home for the holidays is always fun as I get to see my family, as well as many of the people I grew up with. It's also one of the few times of the year when I don't have to worry about how I'm going to eat each day; one of those stresses you can't get away from during normal life as a bachelor.As I touched upon earlier this week, I'll be subtracting about 60 degrees off of the daily high temperatures I've grown so accustomed to living here in Pasadena. Like the other aspects of going home though, such a change keeps you grounded - reminds you of where you come from (or at least that's what I tell myself). Last year, I was home for about 10 days before the temperature got above freezing! One of the nice parts about a Lansing Christmas, however, is the odds are in your favor that it'll be "white." I can't remember the last time there wasn't snow on the ground for Christmas day. This is probably the best day of the year for snow because since none of the stores are open, no one goes out, which means you don't have to shovel it :) I've spent every Christmas to date at home in Lansing, and frankly I can't quite imagine it any other way. I've grown accustomed to spending Thanksgiving in random spots, as it's incredibly expensive to fly anywhere that time of year, and universities usually don't give us too much time off. I'm around older people now, as well as people from other countries, who don't go anywhere for Christmas. The former being already "home" (as they have families), while the later have the same story I have for Thanksgiving. Thus, it's starting to feel kind of strange to go home for the holidays, like I'm still an undergrad; but I'll keep doing it, that is until my family comes out here (which should happen considering the weather and the fact that I live down the street from the Rose Parade, but I'll leave that for another blog).
Mother nature Today one of my decisions for moving out here to So. Cal (instead of going back to Michigan) was affirmed: us, them. I keep trying to get my girlfriend to make the move too.
Missy does it again My sister, Melissa, got a recent mention in the New York Times (on my birthday no less!). If you don't already know, Missy's a world famous violinist… err, okay, "nationally renowned" is probably a more accurate description :) Suffice it to say: she's pretty damn good. I get this feeling God put all of my family's musical talent into her, as the only thing I can do musically is to pick out a good radio station - and even that's arguable.
Birthday action My birthday was last weekend; I was fortunate enough to be able to spend it with my lady friend (okay, okay, okay, I'll admit it, my "girlfriend"). Since my birthday always falls during finals week, it's impossible to plan anything around it, as finals time is always kind of haphazard. We enjoy traveling, and for times like this the best option is usually somewhere within driving distance. Last year it was Vegas, this year is for real southern California.I was able to get Friday off (my actual birthday), so we woke up and decided to head down to San Diego. It was truly on a whim, as we had no idea what we were going to do. On the way down, we considered going to Disneyland, but after learning that was going to cost us over $100 just to get in we kept heading south. We ended up settling in a portion of downtown that seemed pretty popular (I think they called it "Old Town"), which allowed us to get something to eat and walk around for a while. In the brief time we spent there, San Diego seemed kind of like Philly: a big city with a small town feel. A lot of people say they like it better than LA, but I'm still not sure why. The next day we decided to hit up Mexico. However, I wanted to see the Padres stadium first (for no particular reason other than to say I've seen it). When we get over there, there's some charity event going on. As an attraction, they had snow for the kids to play in. Picture this: a 30ft. by 30ft. patch of artificial snow on the side of a hill (palm trees in the background no less), full of kids and parents with video cameras - only in Southern California! And the kids were really dressed like it was snow weather (meanwhile I watch on in my short sleeve shirt). These kids had hats, gloves, snow pants and boots. Some even brought sleds to slide down the (90 sq. ft.) patch. For a guy who grew up in Michigan, this sight was sad, yet hilarious :) Anywho's, we came to grips with what had just seen, we hopped on the highway and made a run for the border. We stopped at this little town just south of Tijuana to have lunch, and then drove down highway 1 to Ensenada. Highway 1 is a really pretty drive cause it's right along the coast. We'd taken it on our last leg of that road trip we took back in the September (from San Fran to about Santa&Barbara), so it was kind of cool to take it even further south. While the drive was pretty, the destination wasn't :/ Ensenada's a real shit hole, probably the worst beach town I've ever been to. Needless to say, as soon as we hit it we turned around and headed back to TJ. We walked around TJ for a while: met some locals, checked out a street market, and walked up and down their main street. TJ is kind of out of control. That is, I can imagine all sorts of illegal shit goes unnoticed down there. It was all good though; at the very least I got to practice my Spanish. We came back here to Pasadena that same night (Saturday), completing yet another (great) birthday extravaganza.
My head just exploded It's actually going to happen! Universal has finally gotten their act together and released the first season of Miami Vice. When I first saw the series available at Amazon, I didn't really know what to think. Amazingly, my first reaction wasn't to purchase, as my mind just kind went blank/numb upon seeing it. I quickly recovered, however, and made my way through the Amazon check out processes faster than even the "1-Click®" service could have provided.For years I had just grown to accept the fact that this, the greatest television show of all time, would never be released to the public. It was well known that releasing the series would be tough (on the part of Universal) due to music licensing issues. One of the reasons this show was so great was because of the music, which was produced by actual artists rather than some generic band or orchestra. Back in the 80's no one thought that full television series' would be released to the public. Consequently no one ever thought about legal issues surrounding the reproduction and distribution of such work to the masses. But alas, here we are in the DVD era where a concept like Miami Vice distribution is tough to get past the lawyers. Some have rumored that Universal would release the series with altered music in places where they couldn't get the distribution rights. Based on what's been written about this latest release though, I can't quite tell whether or not they had to do this (it seems like they haven't had to though). It would take away from the viewing experience, but some Miami Vice is better than none at all. I just hope they keep this trend going and release the other 4 seasons.
Bust ya' guns I excersised my 2nd Amendment right today by heading over my local firing range and bearing arms. A friend of mine here in the department invited me to go last week, after mentioning he'd bought a gun. At first I didn't think he was serious: they were going to let me, a guy who's never even seen a gun, let alone shot one, handle a firearm?!?! This is so American how could I say no? We decided to head out on Sunday, partly because that was when both of us were free, but a part of me felt the Day of the Lord was most appropriate for such an activity.When we first walked in this morning I was pretty scared, silently questioning why I said yes. Before you try something new, it's always natural to ask yourself, "what's the worst that could happen?" In this case you could die; for some reason this realisation didn't hit me until I was in front of the counter and the guy was going over basic safety with me. To be honest, I haven't been as scared as I was this morning since the time I partcipated in attack dog training. But alas, I was here to shoot and I wasn't leaving till I put some holes up in something. The range looked just like the police shooting halls in the movies. Everyone had their own stall, and there's the string mechanism to adjust the location of the paper target. At first, the sound of the gunfire was a bit disconcerting. I think for the first 10 minutes or so I was jumping all over the place. When we first got out there we got up to our stall and my friend showed me the basics of handling a weapon (loading, unloading, holding, etc.). I payed as best attention as I could with random gunfire happening all around me - talk about pressure. I stepped back and watched as he popped off a couple rounds to show me how it was done. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling I had watching him shoot the weapon for the first time. It's hard to describe. Sort of an astonishment at the destructive power of the thing and the fact that there are so many people out there that love this stuff. But I didn't have time to sit and philosophize about the whole thing: regradless of how wrong the whole thing felt, there was no turning back now, it was soon my turn to shoot. I loaded up the weapon, braced myself and gently squeezed the trigger. There was a huge POP, followed by a small explosion, and that was it. I felt kind of uneasy: I realised then that for me, shooting was going to be an aquired taste. For the next hour or so we took turns lockin' and loadin'. After my initial fear and unease went away, I was able to concentrate on hitting the target and staying steady. It was a fun time, one that won't be soon forgotten.
Cold nights The last two nights we've seen record lows, with temperatures dipping down into the low 30's. Normally, Southern Californians are going crazy when the temp drops lower than 50, so when the thermometer says 30-anything people really don't know how to act.It's been especially tough for me (and my roomate) cause our heat is broken! Tuesday night, it was so cold in the house I could barely eat. We turned on all the lights last night, which warmed things up a bit, but we were still chillin' in our coats and hats. We called the landlord a few times, trying to explain that we were cold, but I don't think he cares (or wants to venture out in the cold to help us). He says the gas company is coming next week - hopefully we survive until then.
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